By KUNA
Brussels : European Union Foreign Ministers Council is meeting here on Monday with the main of preparing the agenda for the summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
According to EU sources, the Council will also hold a “general discussion” on international issues like the Western Balkans, especially Kosovo which declared its independence from Serbia last month.
In their last meeting in February, the ministers agreed that recognizing Kosovo or not depends on individual EU member states. Big EU countries like France, Germany Italy and the UK have recognized Kosovo but a few like Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Spain have not.
On the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will brief the Council on his recent visit to Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Palestinian territories following the killing of over 100 Palestinians, including 20 children, by Israeli troops in Gaza.
The ministers will discuss Irans nuclear issue after the adoption on 3 March of a third resolution by the UN Security Council. The foreign ministers of China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K. and the U.
S.last week called on Solana to resume contacts with Saeed Jalili, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security in order to gradually create the conditions for the opening of negotiations.
However, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran will only discuss its nuclear issue with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and nobody else.
The Council will discuss EU-Georgia ties as well as developments in Zimbabwe where presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for 29 March. Further, the ministers will exchange views on the state of play in negotiations on the WTO’s Doha Development Agenda ahead of a possible ministerial meeting in Geneva.
They are also expected to adopt conclusions but without discussion on Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Pakistan.
The EU-Algeria Association Council will meet on Monday evening, and the EU-Ukraine Cooperation Council and the EU-Albania ministerial Troika on Tuesday.